A Letter To Santa

I haven't posted in here all season for a few reasons. But, with the importance of this weekend's Notre Dame game, I feel it necessary to share my letter to Santa with you, which I wrote yesterday:

Dear Santa,

This year has been pretty crazy, but overall I think that I should be on the 'nice' list. I hope you agree. There isn't a lot that I want this year, and I hope you can come through with the few items on my list. I've been very nice to my brother and sister and have not disobeyed my parents (too much, LOL!).

Also, I hope things are going well up at the North Pole. I know it can get cold up there, but I'm sure you're used to it! That suit you wear looks really warm. Where did you get it? I need a new one. I probably won't get the same color.

Did you like my beard? That also wasn't the same color as yours. Have you always had a beard or did you just start to grow it when you got older? I have to keep mine under control for work - I wish I could grow it out like yours.

I also have a few questions about reindeer. Do they loke the warm weather when they are delivering presents, or do they prefer the cold? Are there other reindeer in the North Pole, or just yours? Can all reindeer fly or just yours? What are reindeer's favorite food? Thanks.

Ok, now on to the important thing - my list. Now, I haven't been a Notre Dame fan for long, so I can't play the pity card that a lot of my friends can. But, a Notre Dame National Championship is all I want for Christmas. I'm not sure if you can affect the outcome of sports games, because that wouldn't make sense if, say, a Florida fan asked for the same thing then you'd have to choose. I guess you could weight all of the fans niceness and naughtiness and then give it to the winning fan base. In that case, I think we have a good shot! Especially since we are going against USC this weekend and they are a pretty naughty bunch (I won't get into details!).

Anyway, I really hope that I can go to the Notre Dame National Championship for Christmas. Tickets are really expensive, but I'm sure that you get a decent sized allotment. I know this might sound crazy compared to previous years, but this is THE ONLY thing that I'm asking for this year. Notre Dame is a Catholic school and Catholics are HUGE supporters of your holiday, and a Notre Dame National Championship would really make us all so happy.

I know that you like the cold, but everyone is different and I really like warm weather. The game is in Miami, which should be beautiful in January. If you are able to get me tickets, I would even pay for the flight and hotel in Miami all on my own.

Thank you for taking the time to read my letter! I know how busy this time of year is for you and you have a lot of other important things to do. Thank you again, and I'll be sure to leave some great snacks out for you on Christmas Eve!

Love,

Mike Galano

P.S. What does "HoHoHo" mean or is that just your laugh?

P.P.S. I moved to a new address but I will still be at my parents' house on Christmas so either one is fine.

What channel is the game on?

If you've tuned in to ESPN at all this week, it's pretty obvious that they'll be covering the Notre Dame game in East Lansing  this weekend. While you'd like to think Notre Dame would be getting this much attention regardless of which channel they were going to be on (this is the only matchup between two top 20 teams), you just know ESPN isn't that respectable.

But all cynicism aside, it's hard not to let the attention get me pumped up. First, after his weekly press conference, Brian Kelly made an appearance on SportsCenter Tuesday, where he assured us that there is no quarterback controversy and that he is taking this season one game at a time:

The game was also featured on ESPNU's "The Experts" where we find out, surprisingly, that this game is important for  Notre Dame:

Herbstreit is also feeling the Irish this season, but in the end makes no commitments and essentially says that this game is going to be close. Thanks for the insight, Herbie. 

Finally, Wojciechowski narrated a cool, short special on why this game is the most important in Notre Dame's recent history: 

So the overall opinion on Notre Dame football up in Bristol appears to be confusion, optimism, and hopes for a ratings boost.

In the end, if the Irish hang with Sparty and pull of a win this  weekend, the real  conversation can  start. If not, all hope is not lost - Michigan still sucks.      

Go Irish.

I like Everett Golson

Well, if you missed the news......ok, let's be honest there's no way I'm breaking this news to anyone. As Coach Kelly announced today, Everett Golson will be our (Notre Dame's) starter v. Navy in Dublin. I like him. I'm ready for the visor. He's looking pretty jacked in this press conference from today, and I also liked what he had to say:

In case you missed it, he's going to try to be the best player that he can be. 

After hearing the news, I immediately went to his high school highlights. Not too shabby. 

Here's his entire playing time from the first half of the Blue and Gold Game. I was too lazy to do the second half as well, but you can watch the whole thing here. 

Finally, here are a few links to some articles if you want to do some reading (lol).

Brian Hamilton's (@ChiTribHamilton) Chicago Tribune Article

Annnd the Yahoo! Sports Version.

Goodnight.

Game of Thrones Art

Damn, I wish I could draw. This kept me up for a few hours last night:

FyeahGameOfThronesArt

Here are a few of my favorites (especially the one with Jamie):

Ned Stark, weatherman. 

The Starks, plus Theon.

The Starks, again. Minus Theon. 

KingSlayer

Ned

The Mother of Dragons

Rhaegar and his harp

Garfield Minus Garfield

This was another top hit for google search "funny online comics." I find it appropriate for Monday morning. As described by it's creator:

Garfield Minus Garfield is a site dedicated to removing Garfield from the Garfield comic strips in order to reveal the existential angst of a certain young Mr. Jon Arbuckle. It is a journey deep into the mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet American suburb. 

I find it hilarious.

Garfield minus Garfield. click there.

Here's a sampling:

Notre Dame responds to Rick Reilly

In case you missed it, which I'm sure you didn't, Rick Reilly posted an angry article about Notre Dame's preferential treatment in the college football universe. Summarized, Rick believes that ND's recent performance is undeserving of the many perks - an exclusive and lucrative NBC contract, bowl payouts every year, and underserved preseason hype - that the football program receives.

I've come across three decent responses from the ND Nation to Rick's plea for a "downgrade" of Irish football. I present them here in order of effectiveness. All of them are from Domers, so there is obviously bias here, but i think they all make some good points.

3. Mike Golic on ESPNRadio's Mike & Mike in the morning.

Mike's basic point is that it isn't Notre Dame's 'fault' that they are overrated. Now, this really isn't a great response. I'm not sure Rick was saying that it's Notre Dame's fault, and Mr. Golic seems to be attacking a point that was never made.

It really starts to get good around the 2 minute mark when Golic gets all fired up and yelling directly at Rick. The main reasons I include this is because (a) it's Mike Golic and (b) he calls Reilly stupid, asinine, and several other good zingers.

2. "Rick Reilly is Dead Wrong About Notre Dame"

I've never heard of this site before, but this is the first article that comes up when you google "Rick Reilly v. Notre Dame." Tyler Moorehead of College Spun and an English major at ND makes some worthwhile points here and it's a quick read. The highlights:

"First of all, [Reilly] believes that Notre Dame doesn’t deserve a share of bowl revenues. But he isn’t writing the article about a team like Northwestern, which rarely reaches a bowl game and still receives the same share of revenue as the rest of the Big Ten. He’s singling out the Irish, giving them even more “undeserved attention and hype." He’s making his article a self-fulfilling prophecy."

"Reilly claims that Notre Dame is not a national brand, because it lost to Tulsa in 2010. If that is the case, Appalachian State was the undoing of Michigan as a brand, and Boise State put an end to Oklahoma years ago. Give me a break."

"One big problem I have is his claim that “somebody needs to do something” and his pleading to the NCAA and college football’s conference commissioners to put an end to Notre Dame’s prominence. But these powerful figures are catering to the school because, unlike Reilly, they realize its worth and prestige."

and a great tweet from ND columnist John Walters is also included:

@jdubs88: The utter *$%@ IRONY of a writer who was at the top of HIS game 20 years ago but now earns more $$$ than anyone in our field calling out ND for taking the $$ it can get is beyond hilarious. And I may have fractured a friendship w/ that comment, Rick, but it’s what everyone is thinking. You wanna prove ND doesn’t matter? Go write 2,000 words on Clemson. You didn’t, did you? It’s called the free market. No one is forcing NBC to give ND that $$$, just like no one forced John Walsh to give u a 7-fig salary"

(...not sure that's 140 characters)

1) Rick Reilly is Lazy and Wrong.

Maybe I was just fooled by the references to logical fallacies in this article, but it was by far the best pro-ND response I've seen to Reilly. It essentially goes line-by-line and calls Reilly out for every dumb comment that he makes. There are a few parts where the author sounds idiotic, but I can chalk that up to being a hardcore fan and leave it at that. Otherwise, this is great and I am really happy about what is said here. Not giving you any highlights because I want you to read it. 

Now if Notre Dame can just stop making their schedule so damn ridiculous every year maybe they can have a shot at a championship soon. 

Go Irish. 

New Homeland Trailer

Season 1 of Homeland was amazing. If you haven't seen it yet, do it now. 

Here's the trailer for season 2 that was released today. Combined with the music, it's pretty awesome:

A couple things I'm excited to see:

- all of the characters I love from season 1, including the two quirky brothers who help Carrie do her rogue investigating.

- Brody kissing the Qur'an.

- Carrie apparently going undercover. Hopefully (likely) unsanctioned by the CIA.

- Carrie and Saul abroad. Whether they're flashbacks or real-time, scenes in the middle east are always intense.

And of course, the best part of the trailer is seeing Brody washing blood off of himself at a car wash in the middle of the night. Trailers are always sneaky, i.e. this could just be a anticlimactic scene where he accidentally spilled tomato juice on himself, but this one seems promising. The whole season seems promising.

Overall, I'm pumped.

As a sidenote, a kind commentor on YouTube noted that this trailer is 'a complete ripoff of the Downton Abbey Season 2 trailer,' and to him I say:

Even if Showtime did use the same exact song and theme or whatever he claims, there's no way they didn't improve it.